The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-06-25

him that General Kaufman and the Grand
Duke Nicolas were about to make an as
saut on Khiva. 1t was Russia's boldest
move towards India. He determined TO
witness it. He hurried South but missed
the moving column. Then he prepared
for what proved to be one of the most dar-
ing rides ever made by man. 1t was a
journey of 600 miles through silent desola-
tion, with three hundred miles of desert.
Many times he lost his way. Several times
he and his men were prostrated by the
heat and thrown upon the sands, only to be
revived by the coming of the night But
despite the loss of horses, despite the daily
rebellion of his attendants, despite frequent
exhaustion and semi-starvation for nearly
two months, he pushed through the arid
wastes. All through that region he was
called "Molodyety'-a brave fellow.
After he had started, the Russians
wanted him back. Twenty-Five Cossacks,
splendid horsemen, were despatched to
overtake him. For nearly six hundred
miles they chased him across that terrible
country, but when they arrived at hating
place they always found that MacGahan
had left it a few hours before. The peo-
pie even laughed at the idea Of their trying
to catch such brave fellow as the young
American. Nay, more, they went so far
as to put MacGahan's pqrsuer's off the
track; and In the town from which they
started, the admiration for the correspon-
dents pluck was so great that celebration
was arranged to welcome him should he be
overtaken and brought back. But he was
not oYertaken.
He had started for Khiva, and to Khiva
he would go. He entered the Russian
camp specter of himself Officers stopp-
ed in the midst of the battle to express
their admiration. He had one chance in
hundred of getting through that desert
alive. He accepted it, and he not only
won, but he eluded the Cossacks. He saw
Khiva taken. He was one of the first to
enter its portals, and his description of it
and the fight stands on record as MASTER
piece of its kind.
Why did he risk his life in this way
Every step he took, every pound of flesh
he lost-and he lost nearly all of twas
for one purpose, and only to get the news,
to reach Khiva, to lay before the world the
story of Rqssisas first step towards india,
Nor was this his last achievement, In
the spring of 1876 he was in London.
Picking up paper, he read brief des-
spatch telling of the Turkish massacres in
Bulgaria, He saw the tremendous impor-
tanoe of the item. In an hour he had ar.
ranged to 90 to Bulgaria. He hurried to
the scene of the crimes. He painted them
in master strokes. He pictured the dead
girls in the pillaged towns. He went every
where, cheering the people, assisting them,
pleading their cause with his pen, telling
them that the Gar would avenge the out
rage, and bidding them take courage. In
thirty days he changed the whole complex
ion of European politics, Hisletters were
the sensation of the world. Beacons6eld,
the friend of the Turk, arose in the House
of Commons and denounced them as false;
he had official denials telegraphed from
Constantinople.
But MacGahan rode on and wrote on,
until the Russian army crossed the Pruth,
and then, attached to the staff of the COM
manding officer, he went through the fire
and smoke, writing the splendid descrip-
tions in the midst Of battle; fighting aad
laughing and writing, and electrifYilg the
world by the words he placed on the tele=
graph wires. He saw Pleyna fall he was
wounded in Schipka Pass he saw all tho
big events of the war. When Iguatief
drew the famous treaty at San Stefano, he
said that 1t would not stand, and he lived
to see it torn up and laughed at. He
never made prediction that was not full
filed, No charge, except the futile denial
by Disraeli, was ever made against his We.
racity No man in Europe enjoyed a
higher esteem and respect than did he.
And when, nine years ago last Thursday,
a swift fever carried him beyond all earthly
wars, the Russian Gen. Skobeleff closed his
eyes and shed tears at his grave. The
Ohio legislature had his remains removed
to his native state, When the Grand
Duke Nicholas heard of the death, be saidi
HToo bad He would have been governor
of Bulgaria" And, as regularly as the 9th
of June comes, every hamlet, every village,
every city of Bulgaria commentaries his
death and sends up prayers for the repose
of one of the noblest souls that God ever
made.
THE JOURNALIST OF TODAY.
These are few of the heroes of Journal
ism. They are conspicuous because cir
cumstanOes have favored them, but in tho
ranks of the same calling there are thous-
ands of men who are courageous and as
indomitable as men ever were. The
growth of the press has been accompanied
by corresponding growth in the character
and equipment of its writers. Their names
are not sounded by fame because they are
but elements in the greatness of journalism,
and because the Drift Of the times il to.
wards the broader results described by
Tennyson when he wrote in Locksley HALL
.And the individual withers and the world is more
and more"
This very lack of individual fame is a
eulogy to the newspaper men. They work
not for the applause of the world, but from
a sense of duty and feeling of pride in
one of the most glorious fields of human
effort. They see In their profession per.
feet democracy; they believe that its ten
dency is the leadership of intellect as well
as of enterprise; they find in it ready APP
probation of ability and energy, and, more
than all, they feel themselves in close COM
munion with the busiest life, the highest
thought, and the most active tendencies of
the moving world. There is noble inspira-
ton in such feeling, and one result of it is
found in the unique fact that in all the
history of journalism, in all its heights and
depths, there has never yet been known
case of treason by any newspaper man
to the paper with which he was con-
nected
With such band of workers gathering
the history of the hemispheres; with the
best facilities that ingenuity can provide;
with an audience that reaches over the
world; with printing presses harnessed to
steam, and with electricity for sleepless
messenger, journalism goes booming along,
spreading broader civilization, throwing
light into the dark corners of the earth,
furthering the brotherhood of man, and